Dolphins' offense in big trouble with loss of Gibson

WR's absence another blow to a unit that was already sketchy

October 28, 2013|By Chris Perkins

DAVIE -- The Dolphins’ offense is in big trouble.

They overcame the loss of tight end Dustin Keller to a season-ending knee injury. They found a solution to the struggles of right tackle Tyson Clabo, adjusted to having a below-average running game, and are used to life with a quarterback who has more turnovers than touchdowns.

But Sunday’s loss of wide receiver Brandon Gibson with a left knee injury might be the fatal blow to an offense that was perceived to be the team’s weak link (compared to the defense and special teams) to start the season.

Gibson, tied for third on the team in receptions (30), fourth in receiving yards (326), and tied for first in receiving touchdowns (three), was injured in the first quarter. Preliminary reports are it’s a bad one, possibly a season-ender.

That takes a veteran-laden four-man wide receivers crew and reduces it to Two Men (Mike Wallace, Brian Hartline) and a Baby (Rishard Matthews).

Did I mention this is a passing offense that uses a three-receiver formation as its base?

Or, the Dolphins rank 21st in points per game at 21.7, which is slightly more than a field goal better than last year’s pedestrian offense that ranked 27th at 18.0 points per game?

And here’s something that further complicates the problem: Gibson was the Dolphins’ only skilled slot receiver.

Being a slot receiver isn’t an easy skill to acquire. You have to be able to run through a lot of traffic among linebackers, cornerbacks, safeties, and even your own teammates. You probably have to be a bit better-schooled in defense and tendencies than the outside receivers.

The only other slot receiver they had in training camp was Chad Bumphis. He was signed by Denver about a week ago.

The Dolphins aren’t prepared Gibson’s absence, just as they weren’t prepared when Clabo struggled. They had to go off the roster to trade for left tackle Bryant McKinnie.

That’ll be the case again this time.

The Dolphins only carried four wide receivers – Wallace, Hartline, Gibson and Matthews. They tried to stash two others on the practice squad but they got claimed – Brian Tyms is in Cleveland, and Marvin McNutt is in Carolina. That leaves the Dolphins with the likes of Ryan Spadola and Nathan Palmer as practice squad wide receivers.

This is a major, major problem.

As it is, the Dolphins have already witnessed one passing game miracle.

Against all odds, tight ends coach Dan Campbell got his guys ready to play after Keller’s injury. Campbell would probably be the Dolphins’ assistant coach of the year if the defensive line wasn’t playing so well under coach Kacy Rodgers.

Now it’s wide receivers coach Ken O’Keefe’s turn to make his guys a bigger factor.

Wallace, the $60 million man, hasn’t played to that level so far.

Hartline, who got a $30.7 million contract extension during the summer, has been OK, nothing great.

Matthews, last year’s seventh-round pick, has been good considering expectations were low and he was supposed to be a season-long backup.

But this was never a good wide receivers crew.

And you knew if one of the top three got hurt, it was going to be big trouble. Well, now big trouble is here in a big way.

There’s always the chance the tight ends trio of Charles Clay, Michael Egnew and Dion Sims picks up some of the slack. But honestly, only Clay is the only receiver in the bunch. The other two are capable of catching the ball, but they’re not reliable receivers.

It’ll be up to quarterback Ryan Tannehill to figure out how he’s going to move the ball downfield with still-leaky pass protection, a small semblance of a running game, and a weakened receiving corps.

It’s not going to be pretty. But then again, that’s been the story of the past month.